


Tea Time

by sangobacow



Category: 3150 Dahlia St, 3150 Dahlia St (Interactive Fiction)
Genre: Esen bonding time, Tea Leaf reading, friends - Freeform, hanging out with Esen, reading tea leaves with Esen, tea time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-02
Updated: 2019-04-03
Packaged: 2020-01-01 07:12:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18331157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sangobacow/pseuds/sangobacow
Summary: Set in the moment the MC meets Esen in the kitchen in the kitchen. My headcanon of how that meeting went with my MC Mercy.





	1. And so it begins.

**Author's Note:**

> The characters of Freddie and Esen belong to the wonderful writer of Dahlia, I do not own them. I do however own Mercy. Anything that is italicized is a direct quote from the game and not my own words. The rest is all me, babeh.

The hunger had set in deep within Mercy’s belly, it’s grumble resembling that of a dog’s growl. Tossing the book Freddie had foisted upon her to the table she rose to venture downstairs, the kitchen being her ultimate destination. Her new home was still strange, in the sense that most new things are, but it had a new feel to it. The soft bass waving through the halls was an odd but delightful accompaniment to the chimes outside. The breeze billowing in allowed the soft almost sweet smell of incense to blend beautifully with the warm citrus scent coming from the kitchen. It was clearly a well loved house by the residents (or perhaps her Aunt and father took better care of it than she realized) as evidenced by the lack of utter destruction she was forewarned could happen amongst the group.

Wondering what sort of fresh hell she may be in for at the kitchen Mercy sauntered into the room and made her way to lean against the counter. The two eyed each other for a moment before Esen seemed to drop their phone, _“Did you need something?”_

“Not so much,” comes the soft reply from Mercy before she turns and begins rummaging through the cupboards. Giving a dramatic sigh she closed the cabinet harder than she meant to before turning around. _“Are you practicing to be the Mad Hatter?”_

The warm flavors wafting in the air reminded Mercy of thanksgiving and fall, a delicious time of spices and mead. It gave a sense of relaxation to her soul that the soothing scent of orange seemed to only increase.

 _“Cute,”_ Esen pushed their cup away as if the very thought of continuing to stare into it’s seemingly empty depths was one of the worst they could imagine. Mercy didn’t know Esen very well at all right now but she was beginning to think that they might be a touch dramatic. Perhaps they could feed off each other, allowing one overreaction to feed into another. A delightful dangerous combination that would no doubt end them both.

Grabbing for the cup closest to her, Mercy takes a test sniff of the leaves left in the cup. _“Then what is all this?”_ She wasn’t entirely sure what was going on here but based on the number of mostly empty cups scattered about the table she could guess. All of the cups had bits of tea leaves left in the cup; designs scattered about them in such a way as to imply Esen was either going to be getting into composting or was attempting to read them.

Keeping the cup in her hands, despite Esen’s attempts to get it back, Mercy listened to the explanation. It was no real surprise to learn that Esen was truly trying to read the leaves, after all Florence did read Tarot cards; there being someone else in the house interested in the supernatural shouldn’t be any sort of surprise. Mercy knew enough about the craft to be able to identify shapes, she may not have known what those shapes meant exactly but she could tell you roughly what they were. _“Do you want some help?”_


	2. And so it ends.

The blue haired couple spent quite a bit of time together discussing the various forms of reading leaves. They saw a myriad of different designs in each cup until they stumbled upon one cup that held shapes they could both properly agree on. On the side of one of the older cups, one of the first Esen had poured, they stumbled upon a perfect circle. It was almost as if a bubble formed of nothing but tea leaves had been created and popped in that very spot leaving behind it’s delightfully rounded shape. “This could have something to do with seasons or some cyclical thing? The idea of circles going round and round and never having an end?”

Esen stared at Mercy for a moment, their eyes deadpan and face blank. “Cyclical? Really?-” as they spoke their hand moved as if to emphasize their point- “Pullin’ out the big words there, huh?” The derision was almost palpable. 

“Look sometimes I use big words. Fuck off.” Mercy leaned back and rubbed her eyes, they were beginning to feel the strain of hours of continued use. Going from the reading of that dry boring book to the intrigue of finding shapes in a blobbed form was not good without the aid of her glasses. She primarily only used them for reading but damned if her eyes didn’t feel like they wanted them. Resting her arms on the table in front of her Mercy placed her chin on her folded hands, “I think I need a break from these leaves. They are doing my head in.” She blinked hard a few times, trying to clear away the dark spots still resting just beyond her vision. “I’m fucking seeing tea leaf patterns when I close my eyes.”

Esen blinked in surprise, not entirely accustomed to people being quite so harsh in response to their snark. Relaxing to lean their left arm against the edge of the silver tray on the table they commented, “I’m surprised you lasted this long. I was expecting you to bug out fairly quickly.” The fingers of their right hand traced lazy patterns into the surface of the table, their eyes remaining fixed on the digits.

There seemed to be a level of concern lacing their words, almost as if they were afraid Mercy would leave at any moment. Raising her gaze to look at the barely visible brown of Esen’s eyes she took a breath to think of how this must be from her companions view. Not only is there a new person in the house, but one who is related to both the de facto Dad of the house and Florence? Also one who is interested in hanging out with Esen and discussing the art of reading tea leaves? It’s not everyday one finds a person who has similar enough interests to allow you to have a logical discussion on the topic.

“Nah, this is something of a passing interest for me so of course I’d stick around. Can’t get rid of me quite so easily, ok?” She paused long enough to cover the hand still meandering across the table, “Besides, I have a very important question I need to ask you.”

Brows drawing together Esen turned to properly look at Mercy, question on the tip of their tongue before being stopped when the woman beside them stood up and stretched.

“How much did those eyebrow piercings hurt? I’ve wanted one for ages now and I’ve been wondering. I had planned on getting a monroe but now with my lack of funds,” she trailed off with a shrug. She walked over to the window, once more gazing outside to distract herself from the situation of how she got here.

Esen rose to match her, crossing to the other side of the table before leaning against it. “Not much at all. Depends on you handle pain, I guess.” They crossed their arms against their front, legs already matching.  
Mercy turned around asking, “Where did you even got those done? Somewhere around here?” She was startled by how close Esen was and how deeply they were just staring at her. 

“Up the road, not far from the Corner Store,” their words sounded to be too forced to be completely indifferent. They eyed each other for a moment before Mercy turned back around to face the window. She had been so focused on how close Esen had gotten and how intense their stare was that she hadn’t properly been paying attention to what was said. Once it registered in her mind however, she spun around striking a pose.

“Wait?! Corner store?” Her words were louder and more rushed than they ought to have been. Lowering her arms, she moved her still pointed finger to the direction of Esen, “What corner and what store? Is that like a gas station type thing where I can get snacks or more like a small convenience store where I can get a bit of groceries?”

While the movement of her body had been exaggerated, Mercy’s tone had been deadpan serious and Esen found themselves getting more and more amused as she went on. They couldn’t resist the desire to pause and let her stew a second before answering, “Convenience store.” 

Mercy felt her face go slack while she raised her brows. A convenience store so close to home? How ever did she get this lucky? Rushing forward she rested her hands on the shoulders of the rapidly shrinking Esen, “Thank you, my darling non-binary friend. I would not have otherwise known of this beautiful wonderful store and I would be missing out but I’m not ‘cause of you.”

Blinking rapidly Esen leaned further away from the touch, “You’re welcome?” Their voice was smaller than normal and the words came out more questioning than definitive. 

Eyes wide now, Mercy furrowed her brow. Her eyes went down to her hands and saw that the only thing that really changed was that she was now touching Esen. Taking a step back she released her new friend as realization was drawn. “I am so sorry, there I go getting a touch too familiar again.” 

Clearing their throat, Esen straightened up. “Terrible pun aside, I’m surprised Gili, Reuel or Allora didn’t tell you about it already. They are usually some of the first on the welcome wagon, “ they rolled their eyes as they said it but the warmth for the group still shown through, “Especially Gili.”

“I haven’t really seen a lot of anybody yet, I’ve been mostly sticking to my room for now. Trying to get used to things as they are, ya know?” Mercy realized the truth in her statement. She really had been primarily staying within the confines of what was deemed “her space”. Venturing out only for food and to get supplies as she needed. She would probably have to work on that.

“Hm. Allora usually hangs out on the roof quite often, Reuel made a walkway to get between the two buildings out of pallets. You’ll probably end up seeing them more often than not.” Esen seemed to be holding an air of casual indifference again, but Mercy could feel the tension still hanging in the air like smoke. Letting it brush over her face took her bottom lip between her teeth, eyes on the floor. 

“Well, guess I oughta be prepared for that, huh?” She paused, unsure of where to go from here. Mercy was a little worried she had fucked up what was slowly getting to be a decent friendship. Esen hadn’t suddenly become some open book she could easily read but the beginnings of trust were there. She just hoped that she hadn’t completely destroyed the small foundation that had been built. She wasn’t sure just how much of the unease she felt was from Esen or from herself. 

Looking out the window once more as Esen pulled out their phone, Mercy realized she had the perfect excuse to cut and run. She still had some things she needed to do today, among them being venturing out to that store before it got dark. Glancing back over to her friend she realized Esen was already absorbed in something on the screen, fingers rapidly typing away.

“I think I’m gonna go ahead and go get some food at that store. I’ve got a few things I need to do today and having some snacks would certainly help with that. I’ll see you around, Esen,” she remarked as she pushed herself further from the counter and began to make her way to the door.

“Uh huh, bye.” The reply was short and sounded distracted but at this point Mercy was willing to take what she could get. Her first proper friendship and time to bond with someone beyond Freddie or Deck and she damn near ruined it. Such a shame, but damn if that wasn’t a perfect example of her luck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My precious fuck up.


End file.
